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Sunday, May 6, 2007

JIGAR THANDA

JIL JIL JIGAR THANDA“Jigar thanda”, literally means cooling the heart. Jigar thanda is a very popular cool drink in the south of India. The drink said to have been one of the favorites during the Moghul era and is still popular in northern India. Jigar thanda is also considered an ideal drink after long periods of fast. The Jigar thanda is usually consumed during the Ramzan fasting, the muslims break their fast by consuming a glass of Jigar thanda. This drink mainly contains milk, jelly(made of China grass),“nannari” and sweeteners.

Cold milk is known to be a remedy for acidity,

China grass is very healthy also,

(Read about Chinagrass/ Agar Agar also known as Kadal Paasi in Tamil in the Desserts section of my blog under Agar Agar Jelly)

Nannari (Sarasaparilla, Anantmool, anantamool) is a natural coolant, the roots of this herb have the medicinal property of protecting human beings from common summer ailments and ironically enough it grows in cool places.

Please refer to the below link for more information on Sarasaparilla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarsaparilla

“Jigar thanda” is said to be good for stomach and oral ulcers. The drink is not just rejuvenating, but can also can fight stress and weakness, especially if wolfed down after a hard day's work. Madurai is famous for its carts selling Jil Jil Jigarthanda on the streets.

Method
Boil the milk in a saucepan, till it turns slightly pink. Incase you are using milkmaid then check for sugar , if u need more sweet u can add sugar as per your desire and stir until it dissolves and when the mik turns slightly pink, switch off the gas. Allow it to come to room temperature and then refrigerate it.Take some hot milk (from the milk we boiled with sugar/ milkmaid) from the saucepan and add in another vessel, Add the sago to this milk and cook till the sago becomes transparent. Switch off the gas. Keep this separately. Refrigerate this.
Prepare the Agar Agar Jelly(Click on the link, Refer to the recipe of Agar Agar Jelly in the Desserts section of my blog) and keep the cubes ready accordingly.

Serving Instructions
Take a tall glass tumbler, pour one ladle of the cool milk with the sago, ensuring that there is enough sago at the bottom of your glass. Add 1 tablespoon of the Agar Agar (China Grass) jelly that u have cut into cubes and kept. Add the nannari syrup, if nannari is not available u can add also add rose syrup which is commonly available, Rose is also known for its cooling properties if consumed. Now pour the boiled cool milk on top of all this leaving just quarter of a space in the tumbler. Top it up with a scoop of ice cream.

To add a special touch to your jigar thanda add a tablespoon of Theretti pal or Paal Khoa (Refer to the Microwave cooking section of my blog for the recipe)

Hi. I read about this cool drink thru Facebook. Nice information. You have mentioned it is a very popular drink in south of India but in my last 30 years of stay in Kerala/Tamilnadu I have somehow not come across this name. Probably it is called differently here. I shall be happy to receive your clarification and any information from you to my gmail id:

Thanks Habeeb and Bhavani. @Roopa- I have already updated the link on Agar Agar jelly.@Sundar - This drink was born in Madurai is what I heard and very famous there even on the streets. I saw it on a Tamil travel show.